Many librarians, when asked what is involved in being a librarian besides checking out books, will say something to the effect of, “I don’t know the answers, but I know how to look them up.” Where a doctor has knowledge of medicine, a librarian has knowledge of how to find out knowledge of medicine. (Or … Read more Knowing how to find out
The publishing industry has some very separate parts to it. Trade publishing is the biggest, and is what most people think of when they think of “book publishing.” In the trade book market, quantity is everything. The price point for a book is low and the profit margins are very small. Publishers often pay authors … Read more A note on the Library Juice Press pricing philosophy
For your ALA Annual Conference calendar: Library Juice Press and the Alternative Press Center are going to have a reception and party on Saturday night, June 26th, 7pm. Details: Location: 21M Lounge at the M Street Bar & Grill, 2033 M Street, Washington, DC Time: 7pm ’till close, Saturday, June 26th Refreshments: Cash bar and … Read more Library Juice Press / APC Reception at ALA in Washington DC
There is a hot issue in librarianship that I think has great significance in terms of how society and the institution of libraries is changing. The issue is how the profession will deal with claims by native cultural groups who desire that their cultural works, documents, and artifacts be kept in public libraries, but with … Read more Wayne Bivens-Tatum on Librarians and “Traditional Cultural Expressions”
The Great Depression: Its Impact on Forty-Six Large American Public Libraries, an Analysis of Published Writings of Their Directors Author: Robert Scott Kramp Price: $18.00 Published: May 2010 ISBN: 978-1-936117-02-4 Printed on acid-free paper This 1975 dissertation used content analysis to study the impact of the Great Depression on large American public libraries from 1930 … Read more The Great Depression: Its Impact on Forty-Six Large American Public Libraries
Lawsuit Challenges Police and Secret Service Crackdown on Journalists Covering Protests at Republican National Convention CONTACT: press@ccrjustice.org May 5, 2010, Minnesota and St. Paul, MN —Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) with co-counsel De Leon & Nestor and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, filed a federal lawsuit against the Minneapolis and St. Paul police … Read more Goodman vs. St. Paul
The big theme in the current era of librarianship is to be user-centered. Being user centered is the key to maintaining relevance, changing with the times, and erasing the barriers to access that turn many people off to libraries. In the background of the idea of user-centeredness are two parallel but very different theories: critical … Read more Motives in the conception of the “user” in user-centered service design
LACUNY is sponsoring an event tomorrow on Critical Library Instruction at the Brooklyn College Library. The organizers are Alycia Sellie and Jonathan Cope. Ira Shor will be the featured speaker. Wish I could go…
Arcades Collaborative is a new academic group blog, started by Patrick Keilty, on what could be called critical information theory. Ron Day and a number of really sharp doc students (and a couple of sharp practitioners) are applying critical social theory and philosophy to questions in information studies (or more accurately, using theory to raise … Read more New group blog on critical information theory
The Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) was the permanent structure formed out of progressive political organizing in the American Library Association during the revolutionary time of the late 60’s. (For a good history of SRRT’s beginnings, see Toni Samek’s Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility in American Librarianship, 1967-1974 (McFarland, 2003). Since then it has served … Read more What ails SRRT: a diagnosis